


Bath

by entanglednow



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-14
Updated: 2008-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-20 21:22:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/217217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entanglednow/pseuds/entanglednow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He jumps when Arthur's fingers catch his wrist, and hold his hand underwater.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bath

Merlin sets the last bucket down with a _'thud.'_

Arthur has already slid in while he was pouring, impatient to drown his bruises with hot water, and Merlin is grateful that he managed not to splash him. Though the mood he's in, he's not sure Arthur would have cared.

The bruises, stark though they may be on his skin, are nothing next to his father's disappointment, and Merlin knows nothing he can say will make that sting less.

"I'm going to -"

"Stay," Arthur says without looking at him, in a voice that's clearly trying not to mean _anything_ at all. "I might need more hot water." He frowns, lays his arms on the side of the bath and sinks lower in the water.

Merlin, for lack of anything else to do, sits on the stool next to the bath.

He slips a hand into the water without thinking about it, tells himself he's going to test the temperature, when if he's honest with himself, he's wondering how it feels, how it would feel to have his whole body submerged in something so _warm._

It's almost hypnotic on his fingers, dragging them through the water leaves it gently swaying from one side of the bath to the other, and Merlin can't help wondering what it would be like.

He jumps when Arthur's fingers catch his wrist and hold his hand underwater.

"I'm sorry," Merlin says stupidly, but Arthur doesn't push it away, he pulls it closer, through the water, spreading warmth up Merlin's wrist and forearm.

There's a frown in the middle of Arthur's forehead, troubled and uncertain. But the way he's watching Merlin...Arthur's fingers are loose enough that Merlin could slip out of them, if he wanted to.

But Merlin lets him, gives him his hand for...whatever.

For -

He can feel his knuckles sliding against Arthur's thigh underwater, and the implication of that, that Arthur _knows_ what he's doing.

"What are you doing?" Merlin's voice is so soft that for a second he's sure Arthur hasn't heard him. "Arthur?"

His fingers drag high up Arthur's inner thigh, fingertips sliding across the skin, and he takes a breath.

Arthur's hand uncurls from his own, leaves it abandoned in the water, on his skin. Like he can't, like that's demanding too much.

Merlin wants to ask if that's what he wants.

But he doesn't have to ask, because Arthur just looks at him, from under his hair, and under his eyelashes, and says nothing at all.

Merlin turns his hand.

Arthur's the one who takes a breath then, and his hand is over Merlin's again, fingers drifting over his wrist, while his other hand, wet and desperate, leaves the water to pull Merlin closer, to twine in his hair and draw him down. Until the steam and the warmth flow up into his face, and Arthur tilts his head up, throat stretched out, and Merlin has no choice at all but to kiss him.

Arthur's mouth is wet, but it opens like it's been waiting, and Merlin thinks perhaps he missed something obvious, that Arthur _needed_ this and he didn't see.

And Merlin thinks maybe he needs this too.

Arthur's mouth is gone.

"Arthur?" Merlin says desperately, and he doesn't even know what he's asking.

But Arthur makes a noise, sliding to his knees while the water sloshes and slides everywhere, wet fingers grasping the bottom of Merlin's shirt and sliding it up his torso, over his head in a riot of red and water droplets, before dropping to unlace his breeches, pushing them over his hips, and down without shame.

Merlin can't breathe.

"Get in," Arthur tells him, in a voice that _wants._

So Merlin does.


End file.
